Daniel 9.13-God Judged Israel According to the Mosaic Law Yet Israel Had Yet to Repent
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 5, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:13-God Judged Israel According to the Mosaic Law Yet Israel Had Yet to Repent
Lesson # 268
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:1.
Daniel 9:1 During Darius’ first year, Ahasuerus’ son, who was from Median descent, who was made king over the Chaldeans’ kingdom- 2 during the first year of his reign, I myself, Daniel understood by means of the scrolls the specific number of years which the word of the Lord communicated to Jeremiah the prophet for completing devastating Jerusalem-seventy years. 3 Therefore, I devoted my full attention to my Lord, the one and only God by repeatedly presenting prayer request in the form of pleas for mercy while fasting with sackcloth as well as ashes. 4 Indeed, I caused myself to enter into prayer to the Lord my God. Specifically, I caused myself to enter into confession and said, “O my Lord, the one and only God, the Great One yes the Awesome One, who is faithful to His covenant because of His unconditional love on behalf of those who love Him, namely on behalf of those who conscientiously observe His commands, 5 we have sinned, thus we have done wrong so that we have been condemned as guilty because we have rebelled. Specifically, we have deviated from Your commands, that is, from Your laws. 6 Furthermore, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to Your servants, the prophets who spoke by Your authority to and for the benefit of our kings as well as our leaders and in addition our ancestors, yes, to and for the benefit of all the people belonging to the land. 7 You are righteous my Lord but we are publicly disgraced as is the case this very day. To the detriment of the Judean people as well as to the detriment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants likewise to the detriment of all Israel, those nearby as well as those far away in all the countries where You have driven them because of their unfaithfulness which they perpetrated against You. 8 We are publicly disgraced Lord, to the detriment of our kings, to the detriment of our leaders as well as to the detriment of our ancestors because we have sinned against You. 9 My Lord, our God is merciful as well as forgiving even though we have rebelled against Him. 10 Specifically, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to the Lord, our God’s voice by living by means of His laws which He gave in our presence through His servants, the prophets. 11 Indeed, all Israel has transgressed Your law. In other words, they deviated to their own detriment by never paying attention to Your voice. Consequently, the sworn judgment was poured out against us, which was written in the law given to Moses, the servant of the one and only God because we have sinned against Him. 12 Specifically, He carried out His words which He spoke against us as well as against our rulers who ruled us by causing a great disaster to take place against us, which has never taken place under all heaven like what has taken place against Jerusalem.” (My translation)
Daniel 9:13 “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.” (NASB95)
“As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us” marks a comparison between God judging Israel by causing a disaster to strike the nation in the form of the Babylonian invasion and what God warned He would do if Israel unrepentantly disobeyed His laws.
“As it is written in the law of Moses” is referring to the 365 prohibitions and 248 commands which appear in the Mosaic Law.
“All this calamity has come on us” refers to the three Babylonian invasions in 605, 597 and 587 B.C. as well as the three subsequent deportations to Babylon.
“Yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth” is marking a contrast between Israel being judged by God and Israel failing to repent of her sins which led to her being judged in the first place.
“We have not sought the favor” is composed of the negative particle lō(ʾ) (לֹא) (low), “not” which is negating the meaning of the verb ḥā·lā(h) (חָלָה) (khaw-law´), “we have sought” and then we have the object marker ʾēṯ (אֵת) (ayth), which is not translated but is marking the noun pā∙ně(h) (פָּנֶה) (pah-neh), “the favor of.”
The verb ḥā·lā(h) is in the piel stem and means “to seek the favor of, to entreat the favor of” referring to the act of the Jewish exiles seeking the face or presence of God in the sense of attempting to conciliate or reconcile themselves with their God.
The word is emphatically negated by the negative particle lō(ʾ), which is a marker of emphatic negation.
Therefore, these two words denote that the Jewish exiles “never sought” the Lord’s favor by turning from their iniquity.
The first person plural form of this verb ḥā·lā(h) means “we” expressing the fact that Daniel is identifying with his fellow countrymen as though he were personally responsible for sinning against God, which he was not.
The noun pā∙ně(h) literally means “face” but here it is used in a figurative sense of God’s “favor” and is employed with the verb ḥā·lā(h) and together they mean “to seek the favor of” the Lord.
“By turning from” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) “by” and its object is the verb šûḇ (שׁוּב) (shoob), “turning.”
The verb šûḇ means “to turn” in the sense of changing completely the direction one is going in and means that the Jewish exiles never sought the Lord’s favor by turning from their iniquity. It refers to the confession of sin by Israel.
The preposition lĕ is prefixed to the infinitive construct form of this verb and governs it and is functioning as a marker of means indicating that Israel never sought the Lord’s favor, their God “by” turning from their iniquity.
“Our iniquity” is composed of the noun ʿā·wōn (עָוֹן) (aw-vone´), “iniquity” which is modified by the first person plural pronominal suffix ʾǎnǎḥ·nû (אֲנַחְנוּ) (an-akh´-noo), “our.”
The noun ʿā·wōn refers to sin describing it as iniquity in the sense of it being wickedness and wrongdoing with emphasis upon volitional responsibility and guilt for a wrong incurred and is also used in a collective sense referring to the sum of a collection of sins.
Here the word is used of the corporate sin of the Jewish exiles and describes this sin as iniquity.
This noun is the object of the preposition min, which is a marker of separation indicating that the Jewish exiles never sought the Lord’s favor, their God by turning “from” their iniquity expressing the exiles separation from their sin.
“And giving attention to Your truth” presents the next event that would take place after the Jewish exiles turned from their iniquity by confessing their sins to God.
“Giving attention to” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) which is not translated and its object is the verb śā∙ḵǎl (שָׂכַל) (saw-kal), “giving attention.”
The verb śā∙ḵǎl is in the hiphil stem and has the idea of considering thoughtfully or giving attention to something, often with the sense of wisely valuing it enough to seek to understand it and respond appropriately so that it effectively governs one’s life.
Here it refers to the Jewish exiles giving heed to truth in the sense of considering truth thoughtfully and valuing it enough to seek to understand truth and responding in obedience to it.
Therefore, this verb śā∙ḵǎl refers to valuing, learning and obeying the Law on the part of the Jewish exiles after confessing their iniquity.
The preposition lĕ is prefixed to the infinitive construct form of this verb and governs it and is again functioning as a marker of means indicating that the Jewish exiles never sought the Lord, their God’s favor “by” giving heed to His truth.
“Your truth” is composed of the preposition bĕ (בְּ) (beh), “to” and its object is the noun ʾěměṯ (אֱמֶת) (eh´-meth), “truth” which is followed by the second person masculine singular independent personal pronoun ʾǎt·tā(h) (אַתָּה), “Your.”
The noun ʾěměṯ means “truth” referring to God’s Word and specifically the Mosaic Law and refers to truth in an objective sense as a body of knowledge and ethical instructions and instructions regarding the worship of Yahweh.
Daniel 9:13 “As what is written in the law given to Moses, all this disaster has taken place against us. However, we never sought the Lord’s favor, our God by turning from our iniquity followed by giving heed to His truth.” (My translation)
Daniel continues his intercessory prayer on behalf of the Jewish exiles in Babylon by acknowledging to God that the three Babylonian invasions in 605, 597 and 587 B.C. and the subsequent deportations of the Jews to Babylon, which he describes as a “disaster” took place in accordance with the Mosaic Law.
These invasions and their subsequent deportations were the direct result of God acting in accordance with His warning to Israel which was recorded by Moses in writing or in other words, Daniel is acknowledging to God that He judged the nation just as He said He would if Israel unrepentantly disobeyed His laws.
“What is written in the law given to Moses” is referring to Leviticus 26:14-35 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
Then, Daniel acknowledges something shocking to God in light of the disaster which struck Israel, namely that the Jewish exiles never sought the Lord’s favor, their God by turning from their iniquity followed by the giving heed to the Law, which he describes as God’s truth.
The Jewish exiles never attempted during their stay in Babylon to turn from their iniquity followed by giving heed to the Law so as to gain the Lord’s favor or reconcile with Him.
One would think that the Jewish exiles would have been humbled enough after receiving such severe discipline from God that they would confess their sins and obey the Word of God but they had amazingly not done so, which manifests the fact that the Jewish exiles like all human beings are sinners by nature and practice.
It also manifests the fact that they were deceived by the devil as is the case with all of humanity.
Satan could have successfully discouraged Israel into thinking that God would never forgive them, which is a lie and of course unlike Daniel, the Jewish exiles did not remember 1 Kings 8:33-36.
The Jewish exiles were not applying this passage to their situation, which caused them to fail to confess their sins but instead of listening to God’s Word, they were listening to the lies of Satan.
To turn from their iniquity refers to the confession of sin whereas giving heed to God’s truth refers to obedience.